Dumb stuff harms the game

[LuckyOne]

It is also easier to knock down a sand castle than it is to build one. It is easier to let a building rot and crumble than it is to maintain it. It is easier to let a country fall than it is to defend it.

Entropy always wins. Stars burn out. Railways rust. Ships run out of fuel. Nobody complains about this concept when the cause is the mere ravage of time, but the minute players accelerate it, it becomes a problem.

Building a base is a risk. It attracts attention, requires resources, and the owners are never guaranteed to profit from it. Eventually, the ocean will come to crush your sand castle, but sometimes, it gets stepped on. This is part of the risk you accept when you build a base. If you aren't watching your sand castle, maintaining it and digging trenches to divert the incoming tide the ocean will swallow it. If you do nothing to repel the joggers, children playing, and stray dogs, it will get stepped on.

There is no creation without risk of destruction. And yet, people continue to create.

Yes it's true that us puny humans have very little control over the universe. We can't stop the sun from shining, or the Earth from spinning, or change the laws of physics. But you are forgetting that Discovery is still a virtual universe. It's completely under our control. We could make countermeasure launchers pop out fully crewed Core 6 POBs filled with Gold Ore if we wanted...

I get it, life is hard. Yes, Discovery is supposed to emulate life. But it's also supposed to be an escape from life! A place where you can role play being somebody even if you are a nobody in your real life, provided you put in some effort and get other people to accept it.

All I'm saying is there should be a balance. The forces of creation and the forces of destruction need to require similar effort. It's the only way to ensure people stay on the same page and nobody gets disproportionately hurt or bullied. It's the only way to not turn Discovery into a toxic wasteland that lots of other games with high stakes become. The stakes need to be roughly equal, for both sides.

The balance can be achieved by the numbers, or it can be achieved by the teacher that you put in the sandbox to look after the kids so they don't get into a fist fight. The first option is a solution by pure mathematics and logic, the second is a solution by the same (but often flawed) social contract we use to run our real world.